American surfing industry heads for major wipe-out

LOS ANGELES - The California craftsmen who build surfboards by hand slowed production this month, after losing the main source of the foam blocks they whittle into boards.

Asian factories were quick to get more of their machine-made products on the market.

"We've had a tremendous request to add additional models from dealers that need to fill their racks with boards," said Randy French, founder of Santa Cruz-based Surftech, whose boards are manufactured in Thailand.

Surftech, which produces about 50,000 boards annually, may increase orders with its Thai contractor, Cobra International, as much as 30 per cent. Maxam Industries, based in Taiwan, plans to increase output 20 per cent from the 25,000 boards it made this year at a factory in Shenzhen, China.

The influx of imported boards marks a turning point for California's surfboard-shaping industry, which Clark Foam supplied for 44 years. Gordon "Grubby" Clark shut his business early this month worried about environmental lawsuits.

The shift to mass-produced boards is disrupting a California surf-shop culture that esteems master shapers such as Hermosa Beach's Phil Becker, who says his staff has hand-made more than 100,000 surfboards. Each is crafted to the thickness and shape the customer requests for manoeuvrability, layered with resin and fibreglass for strength, and topped off with a custom paint job.

As surfboard-makers deplete their reserves of Clark's foam blocks, some shapers' jobs are at risk and board prices are rising. American surfers spent about US$200 million ($292 million) on boards last year.

Clark, 74, had developed a lighter foam block for surfboard shapers using toluene diisocyanate, the chemical that regulators are concerned about now. His innovation led to lighter boards than the wooden ones, making it easier to carry them to the beach and boosting surfing's popularity in the early 1960s.

The factory that Clark shut, about 80 kilometres south of Los Angeles, supplied 90 per cent of the polyurethane foam blocks, called blanks.

Besides helping companies that make completed boards, Clark Foam's demise provided an opportunity for a rival maker of blanks.

"I'm under the gun right now, trying to start up manufacturing," said Gary Linden, 56, general manager for Wilmington-based Walker Foam.

Linden has a contractor in Shenzhen ramping up to produce 1000 blocks a week, 14 times as many as he makes at a US factory.

Out of an estimated 360,000 surfboards sold in the US in 2004, about 75 per cent were made from the kind of foam Clark produced.

Surfer's Journal publisher Steve Pezman said that without an adequate supply of blocks, 5000 jobs in the US surfboard business were at risk. Stores have raised prices as much as 40 per cent on boards that previously sold for US$350 to US$900.


Board facts
* About 360,000 surfboards were sold in the US in 2004.
* The market is worth US$200 million.
* Board prices have jumped as much as 40 per cent.

- BLOOMBERG